Revolutionizing Viral Infectious Disease Research And Drug Discovery With Organ-On-A-Chip Technology

Despite the strides made in therapeutics over the years, respiratory viruses remain a major threat to global health. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a race to discover effective therapeutics to prevent or treat the infection. Unfortunately, conventional 2D cell cultures often prove inadequate in modeling infections due to their poor differentiation, lack of cellular complexity, and static microenvironment. Organ-on-a-Chip technology offers a promising avenue forward, enabling researchers to model human biology and disease and explore the underlying pathophysiology to counteract the threat of viral infectious diseases.

This case study explores three instances where the Wyss Institute at Harvard University is utilizing Organ-Chips to rapidly identify promising treatments, investigate the evolution of viruses through human-to-human transmission, and analyze how mechanical forces influence the innate immune response to viral infections.